An original watercolour depicting 'Coquette' in still glassy waters, possibly off the Gold Coast. Launched on 5 April 1871, 'Coquette' was a composite screw gunboat which served in the Third Anglo-Ashantee War of 1873-74. The British bought the Gold Coast, including Elmina, from the Dutch in 1872, overturning the Treaty of Butre that the Dutch had signed with the Ahanta in 1656. The treaty's arrangements regulated Dutch-Ahanta diplomatic affairs for more than 213 years but this all changed with the sale of the Dutch Gold Coast and the war started when the Ashanti invaded the new British protectorate.. Medium includes bodycolour. Heightened with white.